The Netflix Taste Profile

Netflix, it is the poor man's Comcast, a flea market of the recent, the not so recent and the down right obscure in cinema.  Chasing down movies in Netflix I feel like Michael Douglas in The Game.  There are so many dead ends and false leads.  But maybe that's why they have the "Taste Profile".

Since that Ed Snowden debacle there has been a lot of concern about what information the NSA is collecting on the average citizen.  I'm more preoccupied with what sort of data Netflix is collecting on me.  Just how is this Taste Profile constructed.  It all seems a bit convoluted compared to something like Pandora, which is a simple thumbs up/thumbs down system.

Put in the hours and your Taste Profile becomes the holy fucking grail to Netflix.  Typically my Taste Profile mirrors my movie preferences well with categories such as "Gritty Crime Drama" or "Oddball Comedy".  With enough views I hope to see some greater specificity with categories like "Harrison Ford Throws Bad Guys Off Moving Vehicles" or "Dramas Featuring a Nick Cage Meltdown".

Truth be told with this shitty weather I've been bingeing on Netflix like a crack fiend.  My profile is nicely tuned and spitting out recommendations for Less Than Zero and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.  Jesus, Sam Rockwell is one of my all time favorite supporting actors.  How the hell did Netflix know to find that for me?  It begs the question, what else does the Netflix supercomputer know about me?  Does it know my first non-G rated movie was Home Alone, that my Dad and I sat through Spice World so my sister would watch the 1998 World Series, that in junior high I was too scared to watch The Blob but years later laughed my way through Hostel, that I've watched both Dirty Dancing and The Notebook to get some, that Fight Club is the only movie I have watched with director's commentary, that I had a Natalie Portman poster in college or that I feel compelled to watch High Fidelity every time I get dumped?

But just when my Taste Profile is near Stephen Hawking level intelligence I go and do something stupid and ruin it all.  Usually following a night at the bar.  Returning home I'm feeling lonely and sentimental.  So I watch some coming of age drama that is listed as "popular on Netflix".

The next day I wake up groggy and hungover.  I boot up Netflix to discover my Taste Profile has dyslexia or some shit.  Gritty Crime Drama has been replaced with Understated Drama and Oddball Comedy is now Romantic Comedy with a Strong Female Lead.  The Netflix supercomputer has just pulled a Hal 9000 on me and now I'm out in the cold.

As a kid I would build giant card castles.  The Netflix Taste Profile is my new card castle.  It takes so long to build but just one foolish choice brings the entire house of cards tumbling down.  When will I learn?

The Wolf of Wall Street

HANNA: How many times a week?

BELFORT: Like um, three, three or four times maybe.

HANNA:  All right, pump those numbers up, those are rookie numbers in this racket.  I myself, jerk off at least... twice a day.

I was already hooked after reading just ten pages of The Wolf of Wall Street, the first of two memoirs written by ex-stock broker and convict, Jordan Belfort.  His writing, while at times particularly crafted was far from dull.  The self absorbed narrative of lavish material wealth, extreme narcotic binges and uninhabited sexual escapades reminded me of another story I had once read, American Psycho.  Well, minus the ax murdering of course.

Reading the book before the movie is passe in my mind.  Maybe it was that, or the fact that Jordan Belfort was so articulately gifted at explaining the depths of a Quaalude overdose that I was feeling dizzy.  So I happily put the book down halfway through to head to the theaters.

Thirty minutes in and the movie had my full attention.  As Jordan Belfort discussed vaginal hair preferences with his father a couple in front of me got up and left the theater in disgust.  I was super pumped.  This movie was already completely vulgar, graphic and just down right deplorable and there was two and half hours to go!

It can be a fool's errand to hold the credibility of a movie too near to that of the book it is based upon.  If anything the movie is modest in the portrayal of the Long Island boiler room known as the brokerage firm of Stratton Oakmont.  DiCaprio does an admirable job of capturing the megalomaniac that is Jordan Belfort but in my opinion it is Jonah Hill that gives the more impressive performance as his off the wall side kick.  I guess Jonah Hill won't be remember just as that funny fat guy with a period stain on his jeans.

If you missed this one in theaters don't worry it will go down something smooth with a six pack from your recliner.  As you listen to ludicrously offensive office speeches, witness scandalous sex acts fueled by excessive drug abuse, and watch the destruction of numerous luxury vehicles just remember this: it all really happened... allegedly.

Dallas Buyers Club

Movie: Dallas Buyers Club
Release: 11/22/2013
Genre: Drama
Length: 117 minutes
Rating: R
Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto
Director: Jean-Marc Vallee
Writer: Craig Borten & Melisa Wallak

I'm sitting with my family on a Sunday afternoon watching a hysterical Ron Woodroof scream at a physician that has just given him thirty days to live.  So begins the saga of Woodroof's battle with AIDS, his doctors, the drug companies and our government.  This movie is sure to be a total downer but its the holidays.  What better way to spend it than with your family, watching the story of a struggling AIDS patient.

The cast has caught my eye.  McConaughey has elevated what I thought was a 'take it or leave it' acting career to plug out some memorable performances and this I quickly decide is his best yet.  It's hard to watch McConaughey directly.  His body is sickly thin leaving him barely recognizable.  He devours booze and cocaine with cheap prostitutes in his trailer.

As the plot unfolds we are introduced to trans-gendered Rayon who Woodroof reluctantly enlists as a business partner in his efforts to obtain and distribute AIDS medications.  An equally sickly Rayon is played by actor-musician Jared Leto.  My recent memories of Leto are that of Thirty Seconds To Mars front man, standing on a building dressed from head to toe in white. Always with a flare for the dramatic Leto is not just pulling off the role of Rayon, he's crushing it.

You may find yourself wondering how someone could write such a story?  Well, they didn't.  Nothing is as entertaining as real life, right?  A word to the wary: if post-apocalyptically thin bodies, excessive drug use with a side serving of sex is too disturbing put this one on the back burner until you grow a pair.  If you can keep your shit together this movie has an entertaining (albeit depressing) plot featuring some first rate acting.